Renaissance

The renaissance period in history is often referred to as an “awakening.” The key questions thus are:

  1. In what way(s) were people asleep?
  2. What woke them up?
  3. What were they woken up to?

Of course, like anything in history, the answers to the above questions will be nuanced and complex, however as we move through this unit together, our goal will be to answer them to the best of our ability utilizing historical facts and documentation as evidence. 

Additionally, we’ll focus our learning on being able to answer and understand the following Essential Questions as well.

And there is no need to ask, “What will be on the test?!” because the possible exam questions are listed below 😉

EQ1:

Does art reflect the values of a society?

EQ2:

To what extent do institutions inherently oppose change? 

ESQ3:

Is Religious change influenced more by ideology or politics?

To Begin our inquiry, download this learning helper: what-was-the-renaissance-intro-learning-sheet


To start the year, we’ll engage in a project based research inquiry to facilitate your understanding of the essential understandings related to the renaissance as well as transferable skills such as analysis, research, synthesis and articulation.

The Economist’s brief summary of the rise and fall of the Medici in terms of their bank business

Excellent General Research Resources For Your Investigations: 

  • https://www.wga.hu/ Web Gallery of Art. Awesome online art resource
  • http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/  link to PBS’ documentary series on the Medici. Very well done
  • http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.asp  Forham University’s source book. Excellent resource for PRIMARY SOURCES; which you need.
  • https://www.mos.org/leonardo/  Great website on DaVinci from the Museum of Science.
  • http://www.learner.org/interactives/renaissance/ somewhat of a teacher focused site; basic but legitimate renaissance information

REVIEW GUIDE FOR RENAISSANCE EXAM:Review Sheet Renaissance